Why people are religious

[Old Baby]

I'm Christian because I believe it is the truth.

I have always been confused by the religious aspect of truth as compared to the scientific aspect of truth.

I mean, children are taught that Santa is truth.

Is it no different with religion, that children are taught that god is truth?

I was taught both Santa and God.  I stopped believing in Santa at 9 or 10 and God at about 36.  

Santa was just a fun thing for me to believe and a fun illusion for my parents to create.  There wasn't any aspect of having this belief that could lead to disappointment or confusion, at least not until the time that I stopped believing.  Even then, I knew I was still going to get presents, and that was the important thing.  The fact that the presents had come from my parents all along seemed irrelevant. 

God is another matter entirely.  My Christianity was built upon a foundation of fear.  I reject the notion that any small child can truly love God, but this was drilled into my head none the less by teaching me to sing childish songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".  Still, my devotion to Christianity at that age was based firmly on a fear of eternal torment.  It's hard to shrug off childish notions when they're so well branded on the young mind, and unlike my belief in Santa Claus, there was no one letting me in on the myth.  My family and all the authority figures in my life believed it.  Adding to the fear was the baggage of guilt I carried throughout my adult life, striving to meet an impossible standard and failing again and again, then blaming myself and repenting of my humanity, wondering why I could never feel the passion for Christ that others felt.  I worried that my apathy would be my eternal damnation.  I wondered what would have to happen to break me down and make me devoted, and I prayed to be broken out of fear for my own soul.  I gave God permission to give me cancer or some other terminal illness if that's what it would take to save me while the saints that surrounded me asked for prayer for trivial matters or for God's prosperity to rain down on them.  I can't speak for the more liberal forms of Christianity that never seemed to take the source book for religion very seriously, but as a bible-believing Conservative Christian, this God teaching equated to a life defined by guilt, confusion, false hope, and self loathing.